You can google 拍案驚奇 and see what it means. Basically it illustrates how a person is surprised by what he or she sees that he couldn’t help himself or herself but to slam his palm on the table.

He or she is flabbergasted.

Let me set this up by saying that 陳雲林 is a very powerful man.

You most likely do not know who 陳雲林 is but this is not important. Let me just say that 陳雲林 is from China and 陳雲林 has the final say on which company or which person in Taiwan can make a lot of money. Thousands of millions of dollars in the next few years. He is also the key person who can determine who and which company in Taiwan will make a lot of money who weren’t included in this run of negotiation between China and Taiwan.

When Taiwanese played the host to wine and dine 陳雲林 in Taiwan, it is only natural that many Taiwanese wanted to get 陳雲林’s attention. Up to now, everything is business as usual because this is the way business is being done in China and Taiwan, as well as in the United States.

Here is where things got out of hand.

The head table was where 陳雲林 sat and many Taiwanese businessmen and women fought tooth and nail to get a seat at this table.

Nothing out of ordinary here either. This was human nature.

Well, apparently the fight was so heated, the host couldn’t decide who got to sit at the 主桌 “zhu3 zhuo1” or head table they came out with this 21st century version that out-done everything we saw in China’s 5,000 year history.

Head table usually is round and it normally sits 10, 12 and sometimes up to 16 people.

The original plan for the 陳雲林 party was a 17-seat, round head table.

The final Taiwanese version was a 42-seat, rectangular table where the guys at the end of the table couldn’t see the face of 陳雲林 let alone hearing what he was saying at all times.

Take a look yourself and see how things are done in Taiwan:

Hey, can you see where 陳雲林 is?

This is 商場現形記 台灣版.

This is the epidemy of sucking up Taiwanese style.

陳雲林 smiles to his guests but laughs at his guest’s behavior deep down.

No fly zone means about 100 or 200 dead Libya soldiers who were unfortunately enough manning Libya’s radar stations, flying Libya’s fighter jets and operating Libya’s tanks when American, yes most sorties were flown by American fighter let pilots, played video games with their missiles around Eastern Libya desert.

It is a minor inconvenience to Qaddafi and the killings are continuing because Qaddafi soldiers are now using Toyota trucks instead of tanks to do the killing. Well, this is equally effective albeit a bit slower than tanks. But the American fighter pilots couldn’t tell which side the Toyota trucks are on.

Qaddafi soldiers use their AK-47 and machine guns (bought by our gasoline money) to kill the rebels who are ill equipped and ill advised.

Obama is in a hard place because he, nor Hillary, nor Defense Secretary Gates know who the Rebels are. It is reported that some of the so-called “rebels” are actually al Qaeda and Hezbollah members who aren’t exactly Obama or American’s best friends.

Obama is also under a rock because air war will not help “rebel” after Libya’s air defense targets are taken out by fighter jets. Gaddafi will stay and will likely win the war in the end.

This means Obama loses. Sarkozy loses too. But this is expected because France never won anything.

If France with Obama in tow dares to go back to UN requesting a change of the original “no fly zone” mission to “Kill Qaddafi” and “Establish a new government,” China will use its veto power to block the resolution.

At the end of the day, Obama and America will become Libya’s enemies. China and Russia will be Qaddafi’s friends. Russia don’t need Libya’s oil but China does.

Guess where Gaddafi’s oil will flow once this is over. And which country’s oil company will be allowed into Libya? Definitely not ExxonMobil or ChevronTexaco because their assets may be nationalized like they did at Vezenuela.

Obama, a closet black Muslim, managed to bomb another Muslim country without telling American why and without Congress’s knowledge and without killing it’s president, NATO taking over control or not. He managed to start a third war for the United States without telling Americans how this will end and how much this war will cost the American tax payers.

Now you know how incompetent Obama and Hillary are . And you know how Obama and Hillary were out-matched by China at the UN now at UN’s security council. I bet you $5 that Hillary probably called China’s foreign minister before the resolution came to a vote and asked him not to veto this resolution. She is probably asking Obama for a raise for her achievements at the UN.

As for the game Obama played with NATO taking over the control of the military action, he tried to wash his hands and walk away from this mess, just think about this:

The head of NATO is an American Admiral and most of NATO fighter jets are American fighters jets.

And don’t get me started on who are paying for the most of NATO’s bills.

That’s YOU and ME.

Only a liberal can come up a war with this kind of half-baked strategy. He takes credits for starting the so-called humanitarians mission but wants the American people blaming NATO, instead of him, for the ultimate failure of the military action.

Thanks to all the young people who voted Obama into office. Now get ready to pay for his mistakes if you manage to hold on to your hamburger flipping jobs.

I am going to take my social security checks a few years later so that I can get as much as I can from Obama and this soon-to-be-Greece US government.

西塘古镇 is an ancient city about 25 miles from Shanghai in 浙江省嘉善縣”zhe4 jiang1 sheng3 jia1 shan4 xian4,” or the County of JiaShan in Zhejiang Province.

Bao saw an article on the Internet promoting this city and asked me to take her over there on a day trip.

I found out that we could take a high-speed train at Shanghai train station and assumed that it was the main train station in the center of the city.

Well, it wasn’t. We needed to go to 虹橋火車站 on the west side of the city instead. We got there via subway and bought the 1 pm ticket to 嘉善縣. Tickets to almost every city on the railroad network could be purchased at one of probably 20 or more automated ticketing machines. If we needed assistance, we had to walk to a different section of the train station and someone over there could help us.

While waiting we went to one of the four restaurants on the second floor of the train station to have a cup of coffee. The small restaurant was packed with customers and judging by the prices on the menu, I guessed that most of the customers were either rich businessmen, rich businesswomen or party officials on expense account. Common people on 2,000 renminbi a month could not afford this kind of spending at all.

The name of the cafe was called 左岸咖啡 "zuo3 an4 ka1 fei1" Left Bank Cafe. 68 Renminbi for a latte and a regular coffee. Not cheap even by Northern Virginia standard.

We used to do this around Chinese New Year at our home in Taizhong. Mom and Dad made sausages from scratch, air-dried ducks, 腊肉 "la4 rou4" BBQ pork Chinese style and air-dried chickens. Seeing this dried in the cold air certainly bought back some fond memories from the old days. Wow, that was 50 years ago.

西塘古镇

A restaurant on the river

Zoom in to see the 對聯 "dui4 lian2."

Well prepared for the winter.

A stage for local opera and music performance

Trash bin

Entrance to a couple of local hotels. Hmm.., I am not sure I wanted to stay here.

Take a closer look of the 對聯 "dui4 lian2" and see if you can see something unique about it. Hint: same five words>

The best wonton soup I have ever had: paper thin skins practically melted in your mouth. Very little meat hence: small wonton 小餛飩 "xiao3 hun2 tun1." Lots of onions just the way I like it. Clear chicken broth was so flavorful that I could never inmitate. Make sure you try it when you visit here. Only 5 renminbi; about 90 cents. 1000 times better than what you can get from the A&J's in Northern Virginia.

Wonton by 陆 "lu4"

You need to zoom in to see the details.

Happy Pig

10 renminbi a pair. About $1.50

Small craft shop with a 对联 "dui4 lian2" that makes you think about your love life.

酒 "jiu3" Chinese rice wine.

On the way back to Shanghai on 高鐵 "gao1 tie3" (High speed railroad) at 339 KM/hour. Pretty fast.